Friday, March 18, 2011

It has been a couple of years since I have been to Sing Song mostly because I haven't been in or known anyone in Sing Song but my sweet friend Baylee pledged Siggies this year and I was determined to go and see her. My best and fun loving friend Robin agreed to go with me, even though she had no clue what Sing Song was and I had no great way to explain it to her. Our crazy schedules prevented us from leaving earlier than Saturday morning but we still had plenty of time to make the afternoon show. We headed out somewhat early on Saturday morning and chatted and talked and caught up on things. It made the drive fly-by and before we knew it we were in Abilene and we were starving, we were ready for lunch, and I knew the perfect place...La Popular!

We had a delicious lunch! I had my favorite burritos and they were just like I remembered them~FANTASTIC!

We then decided to head back to ACU to park and pick up our tickets at will call. Since we had some time we cruised around the campus center and it is soooo different. It looks really cool, modern, and bright but I miss the Hilton Room. I have great memories from ACU and a lot of them were in that room. But enough of that. We also cruised through the bookstore where I picked us this cup: By now we figured we should REALLY head over and pick up the tickets. As we were coming out of the campus center I was explaining that everyone wears costumes as I pointed out what was clearly Siggies in their Piggie costumes, I recognized my favorite piggie~Baylee! She chatted with us quickly before she had to get going and we finally hit up will call, got our tickets and headed in to find our seats. Our seats were portrayed online as further back than when we actually got there and got to sit in them. We were in the front row. We couldn't have been any closer or we would have been a part of the show! Here we are getting our pose on in front of the stage before the show began. With out a flash this was the best I could do with my iPhone to get a picture of the Siggie Piggies. The finale with everyone coming back in. After the show Baylee wanted us to come with her and her family to eat dinner and she chose:

Fuji's!

Here I am with my sweet Siggie Piggie Baylee! I just love her! After dinner we decided to head on home. We made a quick stop at the Luttrells to say hello, I couldn't just pass through town without saying hi to that sweet, wonderful family. Then we filled up with gas at Walmart got some blizzards for the road and headed home. We had a great time and I enjoyed seeing Sing Song again, even though the Siggies were beat by popcorn. Robin liked the show too. She said her favorites were the Grad students with their Super Mario Theme. I'll leave y'all with one more picture of Robin and I hamming it up before the show.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I'm sure many of you remember when I went and waited in line for hours for the Pioneer Woman~Ree Drummond to sign my cookbook, if not you can read about it here. Well she wrote another book, this book is called Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.This book chronicles the story of how she met her husband, The Marlboro Man (so called for his likeness to the ruggedly handsome Marlboro Man in the cigarette ads) and adjusting to life as newlywed and ranch life.

It just so happens I found out she was doing another book tour and this time she would be stopping again at the Borders on Preston Road, on Valentine's Day! Unlike last time I was a little more informed about the process this time and my sweet and very kind father offered to head over to the bookstore when it opened, purchase my copy of the book and thus obtain my golden ticket~a purple wristband~the first color in the wristbands they were handing out. This guaranteed me a short wait later that evening! Thanks dad you truly are the BEST!

I got to the store managed to finally find a parking space and head inside to this: Tons of people! I was told that I could either line up now and not see her while she was doing her Q&A session or wait and watch that and then line up . I just got in line. From my spot in line I could kind of see the back of her head.

Oh yea she also brought Marlboro Man and the kids. Here is the back of him.

After they came out she answered audience questions for about 15-20 minutes. She was very funny and kind.

Here is the line.

Waiting in line Getting closer Rounding the corner The last stretch Only one person left (in front of me) MY TURN! She said well aren't you cute! Then we chatted about somethings I had made that weekend (wishing I had brought her some because she said she was hungry), seeing her last time, and how much I loved her cookbook. Then my turn was over and I headed off. I still have a broken camera and I only had my iPhone but I think my pics turned our ok. After I was done I ran into Olivia and Rebecca from college days, and Rebecca had a real camera! If only! Oh well the iPhone got it done. I had heard Marlboro Man (his real name is Ladd but after hearing MM so much it seems wrong) was signing the book too, and that he was quite chatty and nice. So I waited in the line that had formed for him to sign. I must interject that the man in person is quite handsome, dazzling so, and pictures don't quite do him justice. We chatted about how he felt about all this (loves it, gets them to see all kinds of new places), what his fav meal really is (the sandwhich, and he taught her to make it) and if he liked the book (yes, of course he did). Then he signed my books.Here is my signed book: After all this excitement (I had spent almost 2 hours in traffic to get there) I was tired and ready to head home. I always love getting to meet her, she is so beautiful, very kind, genuine, funny and down to earth. It was a nice treat to get to meet Marlboro Man too. Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Friday, March 11, 2011

I must start this rambling with a little background. I have loved reading as far back as I can remember, we spent weekends going to the library, in fact my parents used it as a punishment for bad behavior, if we didn't obey we weren't allowed to go to the library. For some reason starting about this time last year I stopped reading. I'm not sure why I just did, it was like I didn't have a desire to even crack open a book.

So last fall when my friend Leah got us together to start our book club, I thought this would be a great way to reignite my love of reading. Well it did. I'm so glad it did because I have started flying through books. Lately it has gotten crazy out of control, I feel like I am at the library every other day returning and checking out new books. So I thought I would give you a list of what I have been reading lately.

I had finished our book club book for April (I'm not a over achiever, it's just my name came up at the library and I decided I would just read it instead of canceling and trying to get my name to come up on the hold list again.) We hadn't chosen new books yet for book club so I went to the library and started picking out books. I had read the other three books in the Queen of Babble series but I had never finished the series. So I started with:

This series is light, cute, and funny. It's about a girl named Lizzie Nichols who happens to be amazing at restoring vintage wedding gowns and moves from the Midwest to New York City to make her dreams come true. Along the way she struggles with finding jobs, bad boyfriends, true love, and her Spanx!

It took me a little while to remember all the details because it has been a long time since I read the other books but after a couple of chapters I was in and I was hooked again. I enjoyed the whole series, Lizzie was a great relateable character that made me laugh and root for her.

I decided to continue with Meg Cabot because I really love her writing. So I picked up the books in the Heather Wells mystery series. Starting with:

These books are about Heather Wells she is a former pop star turned resident hall assistant director at New York College. Her roommate, Cooper is a PI and the brother of her ex-fiance and fellow pop star. When people end up murdered in the dorm where she works she has an uncanny knack for ending up involved in the investigations.

Heather is honest, smart, and quirkly funny. The books are were easy and interesting to read. I loved the whole series.

One of my other favorite authors is Sophie Kinsella. I loved her Shopaholic series, Becky's mind sounds uncannily familiar to my own sometimes. So I decided to pick up:

Lara Lington's life is crazily out of control, her boyfriend dumped her through email, her business partner went on vacation indefinitely, and she has to attend the funeral of her great-aunt she can barely remember. Her life becomes even more complicated when she starts seeing and hearing her late great-aunt. But once she starts following her aunt's directions her life starts going in a directions she never would have dreamed.

I thought this was going to be a little out there, I wasn't sure about the whole ghost coming and talking to you but it was a great book and I loved reading this one, I went through it in like two days.

I sometimes really love the comedy of Kathy Griffin. I also like her show My Life on the D-List, even though I am not a faithful watcher I love the episodes when her mother is on. Her mom always cracks me up, one of the things she always says is "Tip it Kathleen!" (she means when it looks like your box of wine is out you tip it so you can get every drop) I saw this and thought it might be funny. It is her mom's thoughts and opinions on her childhood, late husband, her children, and life. Kathy apparently got hold of the manuscript before it went to press and added her own comments and thoughts about her mom's stories.

It was a very quick and funny read. It was interesting because from watching the show I have heard both of them talk and in my mind I could hear Maggie, like she was reading the book aloud to me. Then there would be a comment by Kathy and then I would hear her voice come in, with correct sarcasm and wise-cracking.

Since I was on a reality TV kind of mindset and on Abbe's reads she had said she had read this and it was a pretty interesting book I decided to read Tori Spelling's first book and I then followed it up with her other two books.

This was an interesting look into the childhood and life of Tori Spelling. I found that she was open, honest, and very candid. She talked about how she viewed growing up as Aaron Spelling's daughter, life behind the scenes of 90210, the plastic surgery, and meeting Dean. While she never came off as awww poor me, poor little rich girl, I did find myself thankful that even though my parents never had the money to throw elaborate, over-the-top parties like hers they always made sure to spend time with me and my sisters. Overall I liked the book, obviously since I went on to read the next two.In this book she explored what it was like to be a mom in Hollywood. She talks about her desire to have the normal block party, hanging with neighborhood families, trick-or-treating neighborhood she dreamed of growing up. And the perceptions those moms have of her as celebrity mother. It was also quite interesting and entertaining. I really like her voice, she writes like she's in the room talking to you. Her last book was about figuring out where their lives are going now after they have stabilized work, finances, family matters, and dealing with paparazzi. It was a nice way to round things out.

I am still reading, in fact I just started a new book. I am so thankful to the Cover Girls, not only for helping me reignite one of my first loves but also the fun we have when we get together. I went in knowing some of the girls really well, and others only as acquaintances, and some not at all but when we are together we all get to talking and laughing about all kinds of things, not just the books. The weeks we are getting together I almost cannot wait for the week to end so that I can see my fellow Cover Girls! Tonight we are meeting to pick new books and I am so excited to see each girl, I love them all!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

February's Cover Girls book club was Leah J.'s book called The Pursuit of Alice Thrift.Alice is a resident who one day aspires to be a plastic surgeon who works on wealthy clients so she can afford to fix people in third world countries. She is smart but a little inept when it comes to social customs and interactions. This story follows her realization about who she is and whether she should stick with the profession she has devoted years and time to.

It was an interesting book. I thought it was slow and it took me awhile to get into it but after I finished the book I realized I had liked the book and somewhere along the way I went from being disinterested in Alice to rooting for her.

We all met at her house one February night and like in the book we had sub sandwiches. We all sat down to talk about what we thought about Alice, the book and the author. After we had been chatting awhile Leah announced she had made fudge just like Ray's (a character in the book). Her fudge was delicious. She made two kinds: chocolate and peanut butter. We had a great time.

I apologize again I was unable to take pics because of the lack of camera.

January was originally supposed to be to talk about Leah W.'s book but instead we met to finish up the Hunger Games Trilogy with Catching Fire (2) and Mockingjay (3). Amy sent out an email inviting us to meet at her house to eat and chat about the Hunger Games Trilogy and whether we are Team Peeta or Team Gale.

So Friday evening we all headed to Amy's (she has fantastic parties, she and her sister host our Twilight parties). She had a magnetic board up where we could cast our vote for Peeta or Gale. Then we helped ourselves to all the fixings for Tacos or Taco Salad. We sat around talking about the books, who we thought would be great in the movie, and any other random topics that came up. After we had all finished with dinner Amy announced that dessert (a cherry chocolate brownie trifle) was ready and we had a choice of hot chocolate or coffee to go with. We all got comfy on the couches while Jennifer asked us questions about the book.

We all stayed too late and too long but it was such a blast hanging out and chatting about these books with these girls! When we left Amy had made us all arena survival kits. Each kit came with a bottle of water, crackers, some jerky, worms (candy), red berries (candy), night glasses, and a token from Peeta-a pearl.

It was such a blast! I apologize for the lack of pictures but over Christmas break my camera broke! Hopefully I'll pick a out a new camera soon! Our next book is Leah J.'s pick!

I feel it is totally fitting that after I post about my Mr. Schuester Valentine Card I follow it up with another holiday~Christmas! My family had a long and lengthy discussion about where and who was hosting Christmas this year. We finally came to the decision that Christmas would be in Kentucky at my sister Melissa's house. My mom, Sookie (my dog), and I went up there first. Followed a couple of days later by my dad, sister (Donna), Blink (parents dog), and June (Donna's dog). My sister had totally decked out her house, including her fridge. When you opened the fridge to get something out you would find this:

The cute little snowman had several songs he would sing when you opened the door. You could turn it off but it was kind of fun. Here's the living room with their beautiful Christmas tree. Every time we go to her house we go to a Christmas Eve service at this little church up the road. Right before we started to head out to the church it started snowing (yes we had a white Christmas, like in Christmas Story) so Donna and I went outside and took some pictures in the falling snow.

the inside of the church where we attended the candlelight Christmas Eve service

The next morning Melissa made us (that were awake) breakfast and we got somethings ready for lunch later in the day. Once we were all awake we sat down and opened presents. After years of asking I finally got this:

My green apple Kitchenaid Mixer!!!! I totally love this thing! I used it right away. It was a great Christmas. The next morning we all went to breakfast at Toast on Market to celebrate my mom's birthday and it started snowing a little again. Then my mom, Sookie, and I left to make the trek back to Texas.

Monday, February 14, 2011

My Valentine's Day card from my best friend Stacie! I just love Mr. Schue! Inside it says:I think I would still be in high school. Failing classes on purpose. Yup. Here's to an oh-so-HOT Valentine's Day.